The soup with broccoli and bacon is a warm and comforting dish made with Romanesco broccoli and sautéed sweet bacon. It is a Roman variant, even poorer, of the traditional soup with broccoli and skate, which is mainly served during the Christmas period.
My grandmother often made it in various ways, with bacon or guanciale, with a mixture of ham hock, or with anchovies, and she used any soup pasta available in the pantry, starting from broken spaghetti, to ditalini rigati, and sometimes even with rice.
In this recipe, we will simply see how to prepare the soup with broccoli and bacon, take a Romanesco broccoli, diced sweet bacon, and soup pasta. Today, I used what I had in the pantry, some small gnocchetti sardi, and it turned out delicious.
- Difficulty: Very Easy
- Cost: Very Economical
- Preparation time: 15 Minutes
- Portions: 4 People
- Cooking methods: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients
- 12.35 oz Romanesco broccoli (tips already cleaned and trimmed)
- 7.05 oz pasta (soup pasta)
- 3.53 oz sweet bacon (diced)
- 1 clove garlic
- Half espresso cup dry white wine
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- to taste broth cube (vegetable)
- grated Parmesan (or grated Pecorino)
Steps
Wash the Romanesco broccoli and separate the tips from the stalk, then trim the tougher parts and keep only the tips.
Meanwhile, in a tall pot, where you will prepare the soup, add a drizzle of olive oil and the garlic clove. Let it brown and then add the diced sweet bacon, browning it for a few minutes.
Remove the garlic clove and increase the heat, pour the white wine over the bacon and let it evaporate for 1 minute.
At this point, add the broccoli and let them soak up the flavor for a minute in the bacon sauté, stirring them with a wooden spoon.
Add water to the pot, enough to cover the broccoli and then make the soup. Add 1 and a half broth cubes (as needed) and 1 tablespoon of tomato paste.
Stir well and let the broccoli cook over medium-low heat for about 45 minutes.
At the end of the broccoli’s cooking time, taste the broth and adjust the salt if necessary. Pour in the soup pasta, which you can choose according to your preferences, and cook it.
At the end of cooking, turn off the heat and let the soup rest for 5 minutes before serving it in a dish sprinkled with plenty of grated Parmesan.
